Sheep

While I'm happy for you that that whole mess got cleaned up, and that you have Ike I'm still waiting Nah I'm not too cut, I mean he's only my Brawl main, my Smash 4 main, my favourite Fire Emblem lord, the lord of my first Fire Emblem game, the lord of my favourite Fire Emblem games, and one of my all time favourite Fire Emblem characters. In all seriousness (though all of that is real) I know the banner's not over yet, and this isn't the last time he'll be on a rate up banner either 'cause he's Ike, he'll be in a voting gauntlet before too long. I'm more concerned about Titania, my favourite early game prepromote. She's someone who I can very easily see being 5* exclusive and not appearing in any more rate ups in the near future.

Eirika, access to her personal weapon raises her presence on your team significantly.

An Ike that doesn't have Aether isn't Ike. It's like, an impostor or something. Man Mael, I'm jealous as hell right now, I haven't got 20 orbs again yet so I can't really roll, but Titania is probably the number 1 unit I'm looking for from this. Her stat line looks pretty great if you can give her some sort of Atk help, and she's the first unit in the game that is both green and that I properly like. That means if I roll her I'll actually have a solid counter to blue units, rather than just getting the upper hand by using really good blue units like Olwen, Cordelia, and Effie. Much like you though I also want Ike pretty badly, seeing as he's the thing that got me into Fire Emblem in the first place, though I know he's going to show in rate up banners in the future so it's not a total disaster if I don't roll him this time around. @Chase Unfortunately that's not the way the gacha probability works. The game already decides which heroes you've rolled when you get your selection of 5, it doesn't run a random number generator when clicking on the slot, it's more like drawing back the curtain to see the prize behind it. The 3% chance of a focus 5* is split between the different focus characters, meaning no matter which one you're looking for you've really got 5 independent 0.75% chances each time you click that summon button. Of course being able to see which colour each hero is gives you an advantage in selecting the heroes you want to choose, but ultimately the probability is much less optimistic than you're phrasing it as. This also means it's harder to get a specific focus 5* if there are more focus characters on the banner.

Based on her performance in PoR and RD she'll probably have lower Atk and Def than Frederick, and higher Spd and Res. That much is probably obvious though, as it's not hard to have lower Atk/Def and higher Spd/Res than Frederick.

Seeing as this is his PoR form, he'll hopefully have Spd somewhere between 30-33. His RD form should be built more like Chrom, but I'm hoping that they'll pay homage to the fact that in PoR he was actually a fast unit.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! Ike and Titania in the same update! And both of them have good voices! And Ike has a skill that makes Aether viable!

Saw the title and I couldn't not. Welcome.

Ah yeah that'd work too. I don't have a trained dancer because unfortunately there hasn't been a single dancer in the entire series that I've really liked. The closest I've come is probably Nils. So I had her move in range of the lancer to begin it, which means she took a hefty hit from the lancer, which means she needed Vantage to not get killed by the 3 mages who all moved to attack her after that.

For everyone struggling with Fem Robin's map, if you have a Kagero give her Vantage and win. Vantage Kagero is a magic bullet that solves all of your problems on that map, in the first turn of fighting she killed all 3 mages, and on the second turn she removed the lance user as well, meaning I only had to bring a swordsman and her to win.

With the Hone Fliers support I'd definitely be looking to keep the Brave Axe and Darting Blow, as that lets you quad anything 33 Spd or lower. Death Blow on Camilla isn't really comparable with Death Blow on Reinhardt or Olwen because most of the meta has much less Res than Def, meaning it's much easier for them to achieve a kill in two hits. By exchanging the Brave Axe for a Silver Axe or a Killer Axe you're spending a lot of feathers and characters to essentially create a worse Minerva. I know you don't have Minerva, but you also said you feel like Camilla outclasses Minerva so I don't see why you'd do that. I'd probably look to Luna over Iceberg or Draconic Aura though, as it is the high Def units that you're going to need help killing, and they're all on the same cooldown. As for your B and C skills the best you could do is probably Renewal/Seal Def and Fortify/Goad Fliers. Renewal helps her tank, Seal Def gives you a free 14 (or 28) damage when retaliating in your phase against a unit that attacked you in their phase, Fortify and Goad Fliers are just easily accessible flier buffing skills to keep the synergy between Camilla and Hinoka going, it's up to you as to which you'd prefer. Oh and I'm with Huk on Reposition, that's great on fliers. tl;dr Brave Axe+, Reposition, Luna, Darting Blow, Renewal/Seal Def, and Fortify/Goad Fliers.

Firstly I agree that Merric is far more resource intensive for little if any gain, but I wasn't asked which was more realistic, I was asked which was best. I took it as a theoretical exercise in determining which unit had the best statline to wield a Gronnblade+. Nino's starting skill set under these conditions is irrelevant as Merric can obtain all of it. Also, it's actually 46 vs 39 Atk at base. As far as Nino's higher Res goes it's not an advantage at all due to her very low HP, Nino has insufficient bulk to live a strong physical hit, and enough bulk to live 1 strong magical hit, while Merric also has enough bulk to live one strong magical hit (you'd need 60 Atk on neutral to OHKO -HP +Spd Merric, exactly the same amount as Nino) but he also has the bulk to live multiple physical attacks. So what you really have here are two mages, one who has more Atk and 1 point higher Spd, and the other who has much more physical bulk, their overall magical bulk is pretty similar. And seeing as I already showed that Nino's Atk is overkill, because Merric can achieve kills on all of the non-red units that she can under a pretty realistic condition of a buff of 14 points total, there's not much reason to say that Nino is better in a theoretical sense. You say that Merric won't double the fastest units, unlike Nino, but +Spd Merric sits at 39 Spd after a Hone Spd buff, which he could push up to 45 with Darting Blow. That seems like it's going to double the fastest units, and remember that I specified the fact that the Merric NEEDS to be +Spd, otherwise he's not the best Gronnblade+ user. I will acknowledge one valid point that you made though, Gronnblade+ +Spd Merric is completely dependent on buffs to work, while Nino's higher Atk, though irrelevant after buffs, is very important in the absence of buffs. You've gone waaaaay off track for two simple reasons. One, I designated at the beginning that the Merric NEEDS to be +Spd to outperform other Gronnblade wielders, so discounting IVs already invalidates your argument against me. Secondly, we were talking about Gronnblade users, not bladetome users in general, so talking about Tharja is irrelevant. I already acknowledged that Tharja is the best Rauorblade user above, though it's a pretty obvious deduction as she's the only one with Spd. That being said you did make some false claims. "With Desperation, defenses don't matter" I would not agree to this at all, you kill your enemy before they can attack (and tbh Desperation isn't that fantastic on ranged units anyway because the majority of their targets won't be able to retaliate) for sure, but Desperation doesn't save you from the unit that attacks you on their phase. Defenses are always still important, you can never discount their value. "60x2 wins games" have you ever heard of overkill? The highest HP stat in the game is 55, so in actual fact 28x2 is what wins games. Nino is overkill in all of it's glorious nature, but by its very definition it is unnecessary. Even Merric with a Bladetome can reach the levels of Atk necessary to kill what you need your green mage to kill. "Neutral Nino can OHKO neutral Effie" I don't know how you do your maths but let me break it down for you. Nino has a neutral Atk of 33, which is boosted to 46 with the Gronnblade+, which under a buff status of 14 brings her Atk up to 60. 60*1.2 (for the weapon triangle advantage) is 72, which when you subtract neutral Effie's 23 Res is 49 damage. Neutral Effie has 50 HP. "Why would you put GB+ on someone with such terrible offenses?" because under a condition of access to buffs, bladetomes render the Atk stat obsolete. +Spd Merric has enough Spd to double the majority of the cast with a Hone Spd buff and Darting Blow, yet spends more of his points on bulk. That can only be an advantage.

I disagree. 5* neutral Atk Merric with a Gronnblade+ sits at 39 Atk naturally, which is raised to 53 after being buffed by an Eirika with Seiglind, Hone Spd, and either Rally Def or Rally Res. At that point a +Spd Merric is sitting on 39 Spd (and you can always use his A slot to give him more if you want) and assuming he's going to double he will deal 46 damage to a unit that has 30 Res. The units that can live a round from said Merric naturally are Wrys, Felicia, Jagen, Lucius, Caeda, Sanaki, Clair, Sheena, Fir, Lilina, Leo, Lyn, Raigh, Sophia, Tiki (both), Roy, Selena, Hana, Nino, Olivia, Palla, Henry, Corrin (M), Navarre, Zephiel, Effie, Marth, Alphonse, Alm, Laslow, Lon'qu, Seliph, Stahl, Ryoma, Karel, Lucina, Draug, and Hinata. That might seem like a long list but it's fleshed out by a whole bunch of red units that you're likely never gonna see unless your opponent is a die hard fan of that character. If we cut it down to relevant units we're talking about Sanaki, Lilina, Lyn, Tiki (both), Nino, Olivia, Zephiel, Effie, Marth, Alm, Ryoma, and Lucina. Assuming you have a decent red counter (which literally every team in the game should have by this point) then that leaves Nino and Effie. Nino under the exact same circumstances still fails to kill both of those units. Tiki A, Olivia, Marth, Alm, and Ryoma (assuming you have Desperation, otherwise you get put under by his Raijinto) are the only ones on that list that Nino can kill but Merric can't under those conditions. Personally I'd take the bulk and just bring a blue unit, you shouldn't be expecting your green units to beat their red units, and with that in mind it becomes a choice between a green mage with more bulk who can ORKO almost every relevant blue/green/white unit, and a green mage with less bulk who can ORKO almost every relevant blue/green/white unit. That's the sort of context under which I say a bladetome user doesn't care about its Atk stat, even a low Atk mage can ORKO almost every relevant non triangle disadvantage unit as long as it has high Spd. With that being the case I'd look for high stats in places where they're going to matter.

Honestly I'd probably say the best Gronnblade candidate currently is +Spd Merric, but if you don't have that then Nino. Bladetomes want Spd, and they don't care overly much about Atk because after you've buffed them sufficiently their damage will be overkill regardless of what their natural Atk is. I say +Spd Merric is better than Nino because of his similar Spd but decreased Atk and increased natural bulk. Ikaru knows more about bladetomes than I do though so he might have a different opinion. I know you have a couple of Linde's though, and she can make a pretty terrifying "Blue Nino" if you want. Hands down the best bladetome user in red is Tharja.

Gem weapons are a poor man's Triangle Adept, but Triangle Adept is one of the most broken skills in the game when used correctly so it's no surprise you're coming around.

I know that feel so well. Deep in my trove of 3* skill fodder I have the great wall of Cecilia. It's starting to rival the great wall of Matthew and the great wall of Clarine.

Nah it's cool you do you but isn't Minerva just better than Camilla? With a 16 might killer weapon, 38 Spd all the time, physical bulk that is still comparable to Camilla's, and the potential to steal Desperation and Moonbow from an unsuspecting Shanna and Palla, she starts beastly and becomes utterly monstrous in two easy steps. The way I see it the only niche Camilla has over Minerva is Res, though I guess she can also quad stuff. This already exists and it's called Tellius herons, and yes it is broken. So broken that I don't think they'll go back to it anytime soon, though to be fair there are a number of things about the herons that make them broken that wouldn't be present in a modern FE game. Stuff like Canto and refreshing 4 units at once. Still, if you're looking for a flying refresh unit Reyson or Leanne are who you want. Not saying that Rafiel isn't good, but he kind of falls down on the flying part when untransformed. Also just an aside note Ninian wasn't able to transform into a dragon in Blazing Blade, she (like all GBA/Tellius dancers) couldn't fight. Dunno if you knew that. Also also Ninian is technically a dancing dragon, Azura was the first refreshing unit that used song rather than dance unless you count the herons but they're kind of weird. It's why everyone refers to the class in general as dancers, until Azura they all were. Actually I guess there was Elphin and Nils who were both Bards and used music to refresh people.

I agree in that I already said she'd be fine for the Brave Lance build, but I wouldn't say Def is irrelevant to that build. There are still going to be times when you're gonna need to take hits, and if -Def means a single hit drops you down below Wary Fighter's threshold then that's very much not preferable. I wouldn't use an Effie that's missing a large chunk of her Def for anything other than Brave Lance offense, and Brave Lance offense is difficult to do on a 1 mov unit without taking a hit first.

Speak for yourself, my +Def -Spd Effie is a fantastic wall, and I'mma boost her up to 39 Def before too long. She very much can be a wall if you want her to, but there's no way a -Def one can.

Honestly what I think is that -Def Effie is not good. 29 Def as a 5 star really isn't enough. If you're planning on using her as a Brave Lance+ nuker then she'll work fine, but for anything else it's really not a good Effie.

Subaki x Rinkah I don't particularly care for the support but it gives Caeldori a stat mod lineup of -1 Str, +1 Mag, +1 Skl, +6 Def. Basically +6 Def for no downside because her personal skill also means she wants the -1 Str. It ultimately doesn't amount to much because stat mods aren't as important as growths in this game unless you're making some pvp builds, but Rinkah!Caeldori makes a pretty great Blacksmith with her personal skill and swordfaire working together to give her 9 extra damage, while using that +6 Def mod in a high Def class.

I've played around with Fury but ultimately I don't like it. Her Def is at the point naturally where she doesn't need Fury to drop into Desperation range, she'll generally take one hit but be unable to take a second, which is perfect for this purpose. She also has Ardent Sacrifice so it's not very difficult at all to get her into Desperation range. Once you're there Fury becomes a liability, Cordelia has the natural Res to be able to take magical hits nicely even at 50% or less health, but if she keeps losing 6 health each time she kills someone then she quickly loses that ability to tank magic. She also doesn't need the extra 3 Atk, so there's no real reason to substitute in Fury as the only thing she wants from it is the Spd. If she needed extra help in getting to 75% health then that'd be one thing, but from what I've played she most definitely doesn't.

The only threatening units in the hands of the computer are dancers, and only then because it's easy to not realize you're actually in attack range. Reinhardt isn't a particularly threatening enemy but neither is anyone, though I would argue that 5 range gives him the ability to create difficult situations more often than other opponents. The thing that makes Reinhardt/Olwen so good is that in the hands of the player they single handedly trivialize around three quarters of the meta.

They're not talking about Blazing Thunder Mael, they said Death Blow. That's +6 Atk when attacking, which Reinhardt almost always is, and due to his high attack stat and brave magic it almost always kills the enemy. Reinhardt and Olwen both belong at the very top of the mage tier list, along with Tharja, Sanaki, Linde, Julia, and Nino, because there's very few people those mounted death machines can't kill. My own personal top 10 coming from my roster? 1: Cordelia Of course Cordelia is gonna be number 1. She's the unit I rerolled for, and the unit I've painstakingly kitted out with a great skill set. Between Spd+3 and Threaten Spd she's able to double any archer with 33 Spd or less, and anything else with 38 Spd or less. Then she also has Desperation to keep her Brave Lance-esque ability alive against anything she doubles, which is almost everything, and an Atk stat of 50 to make sure she kills in 2 hits. For that which she doesn't kill in 2 hits she has Draconic Aura, which is just a flat 15 extra damage against anything (and notably allows her to kill neutral Camilla from full when in Desperation range, it also allows her to OHKO +Spd Takumi before he can hit back). Ardent Sacrifice just ties the ribbon around the present by allowing her to drop herself into Desperation range while providing healing support to a teammate. It took a lot of investment to get her here, but the build works like a charm. 2: Olwen Fast brave magic on a horse. That's basically all you need to know about why Olwen is so good. Compared to Reinhardt, he has more offense at base, but Olwen has more offensive potential. If you want to sacrifice her defences she can reach 46 Atk and 43 Spd with Life and Death and Hone Cavalry support. Not much lives that, basically just stuff like Julia, Fae, and greens with solid Res and Triangle Adept. Even without Life and Death Olwen has the potential to eliminate the units that are too bulky for Reinhardt to 2 shot thanks to her speed, while stuff that has speed enough to not get doubled, and bulk enough to live two hits is rare. Basically she's a 5 range death button with average Spd and sub par bulk but unlike Reinhardt I've used her in Thracia 776 so I like her as a character too. 3: Kagero The first of my truly kitted out units. Poison Dagger+ and Darting Blow combine to mean death to a hell of a lot of units. Vantage turns her into a slaughterhouse for mages, and Rally Speed+Hone Attack is a nice combo for when there's no infantry left. Just looking for a Frederick so she can have Luna too, because with an attack of 40 she can actually punch some holes in mid 20s Def cavalry/fliers. 4: Stahl I haven't given Stahl a single skill inherit so far and he ranks this high on the list. The power of a horse, good Def, Swap, and a Ruby Sword isn't to be underestimated when you have a lot of blues to defend. The number of times I've seen Camilla do 0x4. He's also a gent. One day he'll have a Brave Sword+, Hone Cavalry, and Triangle Adept, then all greens will quake in fear. 5: Effie I got a +Def Effie so I'm thinking I'll slap Def+3 on her to bring her Def up to 39, and then replace Death Blow with Threaten Def which does almost exactly the same thing (1 less damage but it can affect multiple people). In feather limbo at the moment but a massive stat line along with Swap, Bonfire, and Wary Fighter makes her a great unit in the mean time. 6: Azama My favourite healer, but unfortunately healer's aren't really in the meta at the moment, and he has bad IVs. Still, he's helped a lot of units to level 40, and he was key in doing the Ursula map. He's also got hilarious quotes, true to the character. 7: Alm Just recently summoned this dude and I don't like him that much but I figured I'd train him for the next couple of Arena seasons and holy hell he hits hard. Provides my team with a less specialized red unit, so I think I'll keep him around for a while. 8: Reinhardt This dude is a staple on my Arena team until I give Olwen Death Blow, then he'll go and sit on the bench 'cause I like Olwen more. For now though he has the honour of frying Takumis for me. 9: Fae It's a horrible reason but I've run out of units that I use so I picked her because she can give me a copy of Renewal 3 once I summon an Azama with good IVs. 10: Jaffar Because summoning him as a 5* means I have a copy of Life and Death 3 sitting around when I need it.

I have arrived at the promised land.

1. How difficult was Aya for you? Initially very difficult. She was the one that made me extend my team to six, my first real roadblock if you like. Then she got easier, then she got harder again, so now I'd say she's still among the harder gym leaders. 2. If you faced Aya in the online league, how difficult was she for you there? (if you weren't around for the online league, you can just skip this question) She wasn't that tricky, I think there were a lot better than her. Her main strategy was a trick room triples team, so a liberal application of iron balls across your team and you could take her on. It was difficult to stop her setting up trick room because she used a rage powder Amoongus, but she was in the first bracket so that tells you something. 3. Do you think Aya will have any team changes in E17 due to Gen 7 being added? Yeah I could definitely see Toxapex or Salazzle making an appearance. 4. What's something you like about Aya? Her loyalty. 5. What's something you dislike about Aya? Her tsun. 6. Where do you think Team Meteor took Aya? She's probably still in the city. 7. Do you think we'll just go and save her, or do you think there'll be more to it than that? I think it'll be that simple. 8. Do you like Aya's wasteland field? Yeah I do, I think the changes to entry hazards are neat. 9. When teaming up with Aya between Route 3 and Calcenon, did she make the battles easier or harder than they normally would've been? Or around the same difficulty? I think the only battle that actually matters in that segment is the one against Aster and Eclipse, and I don't think she's terribly helpful for that. Both the Solrock and Lunatone have super effective coverage against her Dragalge lead, and the Rhyperior really takes chunks out of her 'mons. Then again she did carry me through that fight on my first time beta testing so I'm indebted to her regardless. 10. Do you think Aya cares about her (brother's) Pokemon, or do you think she just sees them as an obligation along with the Gym Leader title? I think she cares about them. I think most reasonably functional people would seek to alleviate the pain of living creatures where they see it, and I don't think she's any different.